lighting question

[jkandjdk]

I'm still new in photography and still in school for it. i'd like to get a light setup without spending a bunch of money in case I'm not good at it or don't like it. I saw this setup on the internet. can anybody tell me if this setup would be good for a first kits. My main interest is portraiture. My budget is extremely tight right now. I hope the link showed up.

http://www.imagewest.tv/index.asp?PageA ... D&ProdID=5

PLEASE read the question before answering. not like the folks at shutterbug who give responses that don't apply to the question.

[Bonish Photo]

If you look closely, those lights are basically the same thing as Shop Lights that you can get at any Home Depot or Lowes for about $30 each.

I have a few that I use as back ups and they work great. The only differeance with those is they include a silver umbrella and barn doors, but you can get an umbrella for cheap and the barn doors can be made with a few pieces of cardboard.



If you're on a budget, save your money and just buy the yellow shop lights from any store in your area.



Both of these pictures were taken with a couple of shop lights and some home made barn doors.

Buy a Shutterbug magazine and it's loaded with tons of lighting options. I was looking at a 3 light set that came with soft boxes and a case for both the stands and the lights for around the same price.

Depending on what and who you're shooting, they sometimes frown if you pull out some shop lights and you're charging them for the pictures. It pays to look professional if you're charging for your work.

Good luck

Pat
www.everymilesamemory.com

[Walczak Photo]

Well, as I'm just starting to explore all of this myself, here's my own $.02 worth, but please take it with a grain of salt.

The first thing I would consider is what exactly you plan to use the lighting for. Do you need constant lighting or are you looking for actual flash? If you were looking to shoot "products" such as for magazines and ads, then constant lighting may work fine for you. If this is the case, then as Pat said, some of those Home Depot work lights may serve your purpose very well. On the other hand since you said you're looking to do portrait type work, then you may wish to invest in some "mono lights" instead....a couple of good flash cans with modeling lights. These come in variety of powers from under 100 watt/seconds to well over a 1000 which leads me to the next thing to consider...what type of studio are you going to be shooting in...i.e. what size? The bigger the room/studio, the more light you may need for a given subject.

Now as Pat showed, you can do portrait work with constant lighting. For that matter, you can even do it with natural lighting and a reflector or two. Most people I know of however usually use flash cans for portrait work. I've seen guys do well with only one well positioned can and I've seen guys who use 7 or 8 or more. I think a lot of people would agree though that 2-4 lights for most types of portrait work is sufficiant.

What little experience I have with this so far is that studio lighting is kind of a unique art form unto itself. There's no one single magic "do it all" formula or setup...even for a begginer. Most of it really comes down to what kind of effect you want to achieve with the lighting. In my case, I'm looking to get into some portrait work sometime later this year. I'll be working in a small studio (probably a spare bedroom) so I'm looking to get 2 good mono lights around 150 - 300 ws each with adjustable power levels and remote capabilities, a fill light probably with a snoot for some back lighting, an umbrella for the front light, a softbox for the side light...basically going for that classic "Rembrant Lighting" if you will. In this case, there are packages available at places like Adorama and B&H for around $400 - $800 that will serve me pretty well. If I were looking to do stuff like ad shots instead, than I'd probably just get a couple of good shop lights and a big soft box (and/or make my own).

Ok...don't know if that's any help or not, but good luck!
Jim